Everyday Italian Gestures

I remember my first time in Brindisi on the southern coast of Italy. I was sitting outside of a coffee shop and watching the locals go about their business. I noticed many hand gestures and thought they were just really passionate about speaking. Little did I know that it was part of the language and that their nonverbals were just as important as their verbal language.

Now after several trips to Italy and numerous experiences with hand gestures, I can finally show others the power of nonverbal gestures in Italian culture. According to Adam Kendon (1994), there are two gestures I will help you focus on. The two are considered emblems.  Emblems are gestures that can be replaceable for words and vary from culture to culture. The first one and very common throughout Southern Italy is the, mano a borsa or purse hand.

 

It can be moved up and down repeatedly by the speaker with distance and speed also dependent on the speaker. The mano a borsa is understood as when the gesturer is asking a question. It can also be used to accentuate different tones of a question. This is a gesture that is seen in everyday Italian life.

The second gesture is the mani giunte or ‘joined or praying hands’.  According to Kendon, “it is said to indicate that the person using it is making an entreaty of some sort” (p.259). However, according to De Jorio (1979), “one of the more gestures more used among us for denoting that one is begging for indulgence” (p.262). Like the mano a borsa gesture, mani giunte also accompanies spoken utterances and makes obvious certain meanings that is being said that wouldn’t have been made verbally.

I hope this post will help you next time you are traveling through Southern Italy. Remember that gestures are an important part of language and these two emblems can be used to accentuate or even signify a meaning without speaking a word. From yours truly, see you next time!

Dat Trieu

De Jorio, Andrea (1979). La mimica degli antichi investigata nel gestire napoletano.  Bologna,

Italy: Arnaldo.

Kendon, Adam (1994). Gestures as illocutionary and discourse structure markers in Southern

Italian conversation.  Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier.